from Hacker News

DMCA Takedown of iptv-org/iptv on GitHub

by burundi_coffee on 2/27/23, 12:05 AM with 74 comments

  • by hn_throwaway_99 on 2/27/23, 4:11 AM

    Note to article submitters: The HN audience aren't mind readers. Posting a link like this, which simply shows the GitHub repo being taken down with a terms of service violation, with no further information, isn't helpful. There is no info:

    1. on what iptv-org/iptv actually is/was.

    2. that corroborates that this was actually a DMCA takedown request

    3. that actually provides any additional context at all about when/why this happened

    I'm guessing maybe there are some articles/forums/etc. that have some more context. If so, you should submit links to those instead. If not, and you just want to bring attention to this, submit a text submission to explain more details around what's going on.

  • by boomboomsubban on 2/27/23, 3:16 AM

    Github posts their DMCA claims, and I'm not seeing one for iptv https://github.com/github/dmca/search?q=iptv&type=

  • by than3 on 2/27/23, 2:41 AM

    Well, its tough to say what the situation actually is.

    9 days with no response, is a surefire way to force any professional group off your host, and embroil yourself in bad press, and potential litigation. That said the group may not be that professional but they deserve a timely response.

    Can't say for sure but this sure looks and sounds more like potential antitrust violations/issues on the MS/Github side, than DMCA stuff.

    I mean the silence speaks absolute volumes, and companies that do this to free customers will do this to paying customers. There is no financial benefit to doing this and keeping quiet, only damage.

    Everyone in business knows the classic age-old wisdom, what you do in small things that don't matter, dictates how you handle big things when real risks are on the line.

    They haven't clarified or communicated with the maintainers aside from vague boilerplate which doesn't say or point to any reasonable knowledge of what their (customers) did wrong.

    So, just what everyone has been saying for years as opinion (but confirmed now). You can't use Github for anything where you need a professional response.

  • by bm3719 on 2/27/23, 2:41 AM

    Any plausible (and not expensive) recourse in such situations?

    I've had a game server emulator project DMCA-ed previously, and my team's casual research couldn't come up with any solutions. Despite the takedown's text being factually incorrect (it was all rewritten code, not proprietary), there seemed to be no one to appeal to. Instead, we just moved it off GitHub with no further negative consequences. This resulted in some lost visibility and broken links though.

  • by mangatmodi on 2/27/23, 5:17 AM

    Poor maintainers also added the legal section - https://web.archive.org/web/20230204131826/https://github.co...

    > No video files are stored in this repository. The repository simply contains user-submitted links to publicly available video stream URLs, which to the best of our knowledge have been intentionally made publicly by the copyright holders. If any links in these playlists infringe on your rights as a copyright holder, they may be removed by sending a pull request or opening an issue. However, note that we have no control over the destination of the link, and just removing the link from the playlist will not remove its contents from the web. Note that linking does not directly infringe copyright because no copy is made on the site providing the link, and thus this is not a valid reason to send a DMCA notice to GitHub. To remove this content from the web, you should contact the web host that's actually hosting the content (not GitHub, nor the maintainers of this repository).

  • by lxe on 2/27/23, 2:52 AM

    This is a collection of publicly available TV streams from all over the world. What could possibly be there that violates DMCA?

  • by Kim_Bruning on 2/27/23, 4:01 AM

  • by burundi_coffee on 2/27/23, 12:18 AM

    This discussion [1] on another repository of the same account seems to be related. Apparently "the first message on both repositories was DMCA takedown, then for some reason it was changed".

    [1] https://github.com/orgs/iptv-org/discussions/12

  • by mangatmodi on 2/27/23, 5:13 AM

    How come a compilation of pubic streams is eligible for DMCA? Lets wait to get the DMCA notice to be available, it could be either of following 1. Somebody mistakenly/intentionally added a malicious stream. 2. Or DMCA notice is fraud.

    In my experience, it always the 2nd one. There are law firms and agencies randomly taking down stuff on internet with their faulty scripts and crawlers.

  • by 2h on 2/27/23, 3:50 AM

    I would recommend avoiding making contributions on GitHub. If you want an account for search and whatnot fine, but I had an account with hundreds of stars killed. They said it was because I created a second account. I said they could delete the second account, or I would do it. They refused to accept this suggestion and are keeping both banned.

    What's worse is they also kill every single issue, PR and comment you've ever posted. It's quite cruel and unnecessary.

  • by lysp on 2/27/23, 4:51 AM

    Looks like there were a few take-downs.

    This repo was taken down last week:

    https://torrentfreak.com/mpa-pluto-tv-m3u-playlists-facilita...

    Which contained links to pluto tv's channels.

  • by f0ld on 2/27/23, 5:11 AM

    I’ve just found out about this IPTV thing just last week and it’s down. Strangely feels like it’s my fault. They don’t want me to watch nice things. Enjoyed watching local tourism & attraction channel called BeachTV. It was comfy. It’s sad it’s gone now. Wish I knew about it some time ago,

  • by rajishx on 2/27/23, 5:30 AM

    First link found for a mirror: https://gitlab.com/MineCommander/iptv

  • by srj on 2/27/23, 4:22 AM

    If this was a DMCA takedown they need to file a counter notice, at which point I believe GitHub will reinstate them. Unless it's glaringly obvious that the original claim was abusive AFAIK the law doesn't give any leeway.

  • by nonethewiser on 2/27/23, 3:43 AM

    And what is iptv?

  • by 1317 on 2/27/23, 10:04 AM

    well yeah, a list of dodgy tv streams, most of which aren't authorised by the channels, is bound to get taken down eventually